What Comes from the Heart
by EmiGenki
Summary: As a child, Bella had a weak heart. She had to live at a hospital, where Carlisle puts Edward in charge of her. Eventually, they develop a close bond.. but then the Cullens move away. What happens when they meet again but Edward isn't a day older? AU, BxE
1. Prologue

_What comes from the heart, goes to the heart._** -Samuel Taylor Coleridge**

**A.N.** Hey. :) This is my first fanfic. ; Let me get a little cleared up. The format of this story is going to be a bit strange. If you've read the summary, you'll know that Bella knew Edward when she was 7 years old. She stayed at the hospital in Astoria, Oregon. (More than 190 days of rain a year!) Edward slowly develops a relationship with Bella. In every chapter, there's what happens in the present time, and then I'll write an_ itty bitty_ about what happened 9 years before. It might be a little confusing at first, but I'm sure we'll all get it soon enough. The vampires are vampires, and Bella is a human. So, they're not all human. Just thought I'd put that out there.

I'll try to evenly divide Edward POVs and Bella POVs. Review yaaay.

Disclaimer (for the WHOLE story.): I'm pretty sure you know I don't own Twilight.

**Prologue**

The girl slept quietly in the tiny room, filled with get-well-soon cards and vases of flowers. The only sounds were the monotonous beeping and whirling of the various medical equipments, and the rhythmic sound of breathing that issued from the girls mouth. Occasionally a frail cough would cut through the silence, but all was quiet, still. That is, until the door opened with a creak and a tall figure came to site next to the bed.

He placed a hand, ever so lightly, on the girl's. For a second, her marveled a how small the girl's had was compared to him. Not that he should've been surprised. Not only was the girl tiny, even for her age, it's not as if he didn't know what _he _was.

After an immeasurable amount of time, the sun already showing signs of emerging from the clouds, the boy stood to leave. Marble white hands pausing on the doorknob, he took one last sweeping look at the room. He scoffed at the flowers. After being in hospitals for so long, you start to wonder: Who will make it longer, the flowers or the patient?

But he pushed the thought far from his mind. She would make it, he knew it.

She had to.


	2. Beginnings

**Chapter One: **Beginnings

_Keep your feet on the ground, but let your heart soar as high as it will_. -**A. W. Tozer**

**Bella POV**

I slipped on my sneakers, preparing to leave the house. It was already almost noon. The weather was relatively good today, just a light mist, no rain. The seemingly ever-gray clouds hung low in the sky, warning the ones below to enjoy the (somewhat) dryness while we had the chance, because rain was not far away.

My name is Isabella Swan. Bella, please. Isabella takes too long to say and, when you're like me, you should try to save as much time as you can.

Because, you see, I have Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome. Basically, it meant I have a weak heart. It was a lot worse when I was younger, so I suppose I should be glad I haven't died.

You know, just yet.

I sighed. I didn't like to think about most of the time. When Charlie tells people, most have the same reactions.

'Oh! I'm so sorry!' They'd say in insincere voices.

'I hope you recover soon!' I could see the pity plain in their eyes.

I didn't want to be pitied. I wanted not to be restrained by the illness, but to make the best of the time I had. After all, I have the illness. It did not have me.

I've been home schooled because of my condition, since I had to stay at the hospitals most of the time. I was officially 'released' last month, and I'd returned to live with my father, Charlie, in a small town called Forks. Today would be my first day at Forks High.

As I climbed out of my truck, walking as swiftly as I could without tripping on my own two feet, hoping to stay one step ahead of the rain, I wondered vaguely what high school life would be like. My only references were from unrealistic movies and books, or from Him.

"_What a high school like?" The girl asked, leaning over her bed._

"_It's quite boring, actually." He chuckled, smiling down at the little girl. "The teacher teaches us thing, mostly things you'd probably already know."_

_The girl giggled. "That's silly. Why teach me something I already know?"_

_The boy just smiled._

"_Do you have any friends at school?"_

"_Hmm. Well, there's Rosie, and Emmett.."_

"_But that's your family!"_

"_Well, there's you." He touched his fingers to he nose .The girl smiled giggled again and took his hand, playing with his fingers._

"_Edward?"_

"_Mmhmm?""_

"_Will I get to go to high school?"_

_Edward's smile faded. He looked at her with a sadness she did not understand at the time._

"_Of course." He reassured her, and then pulled her tiny body into a hug._

I smiled at the memory. He might've doubted this day would come. But here I was, walking fearlessly into my first day of public school education.

I turned upward towards the sky, talking to him like I always did.

"Just watch me, Edward."

---

**Edward POV**

The day was the same as always. There was no reason for it to be special in anyway. In a town as small as Forks, someone's cat getting run over would probably make the front page. Today, all the minds in the cafeteria were consumed with the matter of a new student, although nobody even knew her name or what she looked like.

I wondered fleetingly about the new addition, but didn't dwell on it. I didn't waste my time over such trivial matters. In the long run, it's not like this'll make much of a difference in my life. If you could call what I had a life, of course.

I heard a name in someone's thoughts. Apparently, someone had found out the name of the new girl from a teacher.

_Isabella. What a common name._

The name, just the name, sent such a feeling of nostalgia it surprised even me. Memories, flashed, came back to me at the mere mentioning of her name. And it_ was_ a common name.

_The girl, head in her hands, gazed intently at Edward. He loved it when she was like this. She would ask him a question, because she always had questions, and he would answer them as best he could. Sometimes he didn't know the answer. Imagine that, a 7-yearold stumping a 90-yearold who had degrees in almost every science possible! But it didn't matter if he didn't know, or he had to make things up. It was fine. Because, as long as she would look at him as admiringly as she did and have her hanging on to his every word, nothing else in the world mattered._

I closed my eyes and smiled, and I heard the curiosity in my siblings' minds about my expression. Alice was about to question me when the minds of almost everyone of the hundred of minds in the room broke into restless chatter.

The cafeteria's doors had opened, and the new girl walked in. She stopped and scanned the room.

Our eyes met.

** A.N.** Not really a cliffy, is it? xD;; So, starting next chapter (I think.) I'll start writing the story of how Edward and Bella met at the hospital along with the present time story.

Review, please! Review make me want to write more. D:


	3. Denial

**A.N.:** Thanks so much for the reviews! I really appreciate them. Sorry it took me so long to update, I've been lazy. xD;;

**Jake Caldefore**; Haha. Well, I'm just going to have to prove you wrong, won't I?

**psych926**; You know, I haven't even thought about that. But I guess that would explain it, wouldn't it? Thanks. xD (I'm such a good writer. Everything's thought out so well.)

Oh, also, I mentioned in the author's note from Chapter One that I would try to divide evenly between Edward's point of view and Bella's. Now, though, I've decided that I would write all of 'present day' in Bella's point of view, and 'Nine Years Before in Edward's point of view. I think that would be enough of both, and it would be easier for me anyways.

**Chapter Two: Denial**

_Nothing is impossible to a valiant heart. _-**Jeanne D'Albret**

**BPOV**

The hair, the face… and, most of all, the eyes: they were his. But I knew it wasn't him. It couldn't be, because that would be impossible.

And yet, I could move my eyes away from his, and, apparently, neither could he. Even in our distance, I could read surprise, incredulity, and something else not so easily defined in his eyes.

Someone tapped me on the shoulder. I unwillingly and painfully tore my eyes away. It was Jessica, a girl that sat next to me in Trigonometry.

"Hey, Bella, do you want sit with us for lunch?" She asked and started pulling me towards her table without waiting for a response. I looked back at his table, and he was talking to his siblings. Perfectly normal, like some wondrous wordless communication hadn't just passed through us in this seemingly mundane setting.

"So, Bella," a guy with blond hair was the first on to speak up among the eyes that were watching me. I sat down in the seat indicated to me by Jessica. "I'm Mike. How do you like Forks High?"

"It's fine," I mumbled, not sure and not caring if they had heard me.

"So your dad's the chief, huh?" Mike pressed on. I nodded, and kept my face down. "I hope we have some classes together. Don't you?" He asked again, apparently intent on making some sort of conversation. I bit my lip and nodded again.

Instead of staying quiet again and possibly squandering my first and potentially last chance to make some friends, I decided to comply and talk to the people around the table. But I couldn't think of something to say. I'd never really tried to fit in before, and my past experiences gave me nothing to work with.

"Um," I started, and Mike brightened. "Who are they?" I pointed to the group where I had seen the boy who looked mysteriously like someone I had met years ago.

Mike seemed less excited that I wanted to talk about someone else, but he answered with slightly overwhelming enthusiasm anyway. "Those are the Cullens," he explained. My sick heart suddenly felt heavier, because that wasn't _his_ name. But did I really believed it would be? But I still couldn't quite shake the feeling that I had heard that name somewhere, even if it wasn't his.

Mike continued. "Those are Alice, Rosalie, Jasper, Emmett…" More pangs of recognition, almost like deja vu. But _where_ had I heard those names before, and why did only _some_ of the names strike me as familiar?

"And Edward."

Then, without my permission, hope rekindled.

I didn't want to seem strange or obsessive, so I let the subject of the Cullens go, and the group talked about some other inconsequential topic I didn't really care about. Lunch ended quickly, and I walked out of the cafeteria with undeniable relief.

I looked down at my schedule. I had Biology next. _I'd better hurry up if I didn't want to get lost and being late again…_

I finally located the Biology building, knowing I was late. I inwardly cursed myself, because now I'd have to walk into the room while the teacher was talking and draw even more attention to myself.

The door creaked open. The teacher, a grumpy looking middle-aged man with a receding hairline looked at me unhappily. "Class started 5 minutes ago. Need I remind you that tardiness will not be tolerated in my classroom?"

"Uh, I'm sorry, sir," I stuttered, and some of the kids in the room snickered. "I'm new, and I couldn't find the classroom."

The teacher looked slightly appeased. "Oh. You must be Isabella Swan." I nodded. "I'm Mr. Banner, why do you go take a seat over there." He pointed to the only empty seat in the room. And, of all the people in the world, the one to sit next to me had to be the Edward Mike had pointed out earlier.

I nervously stumbled to the table. I was nearly there when I tripped over something on the ground and knocked into another girl's table. I apologized, feeling the blush creeping steadily into my face, while the girl giggled and Mr. Banner shot me another annoyed look for disrupting his class once more.

I tried to walk as fast as I could into my seat without tripping again, but then I stopped dead in my tracks when I glanced up at my lab partner.

Edward Cullen was glaring at me with the most intense hatred I've ever known. I would not have known such a strong reaction existed if I had not seen it myself. And it was directed at _me_.

Suddenly, I realized I was standing in the middle of the classroom and a lot of people were probably staring at me, wondering how crazy the new girl really was. _There goes my chance at a normal high school life_, I thought. I felt a bit of anger flare up at this Edward Cullen. I gritted my teeth and sat down, trying to not care about him and what he was thinking.

I tried to focus on the lesson, and when that didn't work, I tried to at least not think about Edward. I fanned out my hair to create a make-shift barrier between us, hoping in vain that his furious expression would stop popping into my head, unnerving me.

But I could not stop myself from glancing at the person sitting next to me every so often. He seemed to be intently listening to Mr. Banner's lesson, but the way his jaw was set and his fists clenched so hard I could see his tendons standing out from where I was sitting, told me that this was not his usual behavior.

I didn't know what I had done to make him hate me so much. More of that inexplicable anger swelled up inside me, and, even if I wasn't sure of anything else in my life, I did know one thing for sure.

This was _not_ my Edward.

**omnomnomnomnomnomnom**

(The divider symbolizes the time change. xD We are now talking about 9 years ago.)

**EPOV**

The drive to the hospital was as quiet as ever, the forever relentless rain lashing onto the windshield. The sound of rain on glass was calming somehow, a lullaby that seemed to follow me wherever I go, disregarding the fact that we were actually looking for it.

I pulled into my designated parking spot, and went up the stairs to find Carlisle. He told me to come see him at the hospital yesterday and hadn't told me why, but from his thought's I'd concluded that he needed help with the overwhelming number of new patients at the hospital.

I walked into the front lobby.

"Edward!" The receptionist, a middle-aged woman with graying hair, never failed to receive me unnaturally warmly. She straightened out her uniform. _He looks as good as ever. Oh, just look at the way he looks at me. He wants me so bad, but he knows he's too young. Oh, such tragic souls we are!_

Slightly nauseating, but I disregarded it. "Hello, Margaret." I forced the warmest smile I could. She seemed dazed. _Maybe no one would care about the age difference…_ she mused in her mind.

"Do you know where I could find Dr. Cullen?" I asked, uncomfortable.

"Uh huh," she nodded, a spacey look still in her eyes. "He's in room 443, tending to a patient."

"Thank you," I smiled and waked away as quickly as I could, still hearing her deluded fantasies behind me.

The number plate said 443, and I pushed the door open quietly and walked in. Carlisle was telling a nurse when to change the IV when he saw me coming in.

"Edward," he smiled. The nurse looked slightly pink in the face, and I doubted she heard a word of what my father had said. "Wait for me in my office, would you?" Carlisle asked, and I nodded and left.

I walked down the corridor, hearing the thoughts of patients and visitors. One reason I disliked the hospitals were the thoughts that swirled around, filled with sadness and hopelessness. And pain. I could feel the pain of the patients through their mind, and that only added to my avoidance of the hospital. Jasper says he could sympathize; he always gets depressed in such places.

I sat down in the visitor's seat in Carlisle's office, and he joined me not much later.

"Edward," he began, "you, for one, probably knows the stress I've been feeling lately, and you probably already know I wanted you to help me out." I smiled, and nodded. He smiled as well, and went on. "There's one particular patient. If you could take her off my hands, I'm sure it would make my day a lot easier."

I raised an eyebrow. I could see the girl in Carlisle's mind. Her name was Isabella, and she had a heart disease. Evidently, she seemed quite… spirited, and was not always up for staying in her room at all times. I laughed at a particular instance that Carlisle was grimacing at.

"Sure, Carlisle. This Isabella, I'll see what I can do."

Carlisle smiled. "Thanks, Edward." He paused and continued. "I hope you know what you've just gotten yourself into."

**A.N.** The reason why Bella didn't think Edward's name was Cullen was because he went by Edward Mason then. :) And she doesn't know where she had heard the names before because she was 8 and doesn't remember everything. She also says that only _some_ of the names struck her as familiar, and that's because Jasper and Alice hadn't found the Cullens yet. Just pretend, please. xD Alice and Jasper actually came to the Cullens in 1950, but, like I said, pretend. I'm sure this won't be the last plot hole I'll try to cover up.

Ugh. I really hate how it's so hard to edit your stories on FF. D:

Sorry, sorry, I made some really bad mistakes in this chapter (pointedly, the second-to-last paragraph in Bella's Point of View, where I wrote 'didn't' instead of 'did' and that made the entire thing really confusing), so I had to edit and re-post it. Ugh, I HATE YOU FF. LET ME EDIT MY FREAKING CHAAAPTERS. -kicks computer-

Review, please! Reviews make me haaaappy.


	4. Crash

A

**A.N.** Sorry sorry sooooorry. I haven't been able to update for a while because of finals and stuff, but the summer's here and I'll have more time now. xD

After I reread my last chapter I realized I was contradicting myself. D: First I said that Edward didn't like hospitals and that Jasper felt the same way, then I turned around and said Alice and Jazz haven't found the Cullens yet then. Darn you, continuity. ;

Thank you for all the reviews! They make me feel guilty about not updating so I want to update. Reviewreviewreview. ;)

**Chapter Three:**

**BPOV**

Life went on.

Forks high school was not one of the most exciting places to be, and everyday flowed into the next, without major distinctions. I had a feeling that if I were to trip and break my arm the entire town would come running to the rescue within five minutes, and the thought was unnerving and yet grimly amusing at the same time.

I found myself in an rather uncomfortable position of popularity that I'd never really experienced before, and, contrary to the things I've read in books and seen in movies, I didn't find it particularly enjoyable. I'm sure it probably would be _very_ enjoyable to anyone except me, which only made me want to enjoy it more and fail miserably. That's why, everyday, I try to be as inconspicuous and invisible as I could, hoping my uninteresting self would fend off the crowd of people.

So far, it hasn't worked yet.

Of course, the friendliness of the people here was all very flattering. Except one, of course.

Edward Cullen had been giving off the same dark, hateful aura for all of the week I've been here._ You'd think he'd hurt himself being so spiteful all the time_, I thought to myself, annoyed. But I've learned to ignore his presence during Biology. Somewhat.

Okay, none at all. Could you blame me? I thought I had made up my mind, but what is the possibility that another person would just look _so_ much like him?

But then again, what were the possibilities that it _was_ him?

Perhaps, the most likely option was that I was going crazy. It was certainly possible, that the rain, which I still hasn't gotten used to, and the oppressive feeling of the ever-present dark clouds in the sky has, indeed, messed with my head.

I let the subject go. If it was my Edward—and that's a very big if—wouldn't he have told me? Was he not happy to see me? The though hurt. What reasons would he have for not coming to me with the truth?

_Maybe because he doesn't want you to think he sold his soul to the devil,_ my mind supplied, half sarcastic, half dead serious. Still, Edward never seemed the vain type.

But how well did I _really_ know him, anyway?

I realized it was time to leave for school. The days have been getting cooler, everyday impossibly colder than the last. Just when I thought the wind could freeze me more solidly to my truck as it was, it would surprise me yet again.

Still, today, it finally got cold enough to freeze the water waiting in the clouds above. It was snowing. I'd seen snow in pictures and movies, and looking at it was beautiful. But_ living_ with it was quite a different matter. It was hard enough to maneuver around town in the ancient vehicle when the streets were slick with rain, but the ever-present rain puddles had frozen to ice overnight, making the task so much more terrifying.

I contemplated just staying home, but failing the test in Trig today proved my worrisome than my quickly approaching death to my introverted mind. So I got I in the car, and drove off as carefully as I could.

Before long, I was pulling into the school parking lot. It wasn't as horrible as I feared it would, and I jokingly suggested to myself that maybe I was starting to grow out of my bad luck, before I got out and noticed the newly installed snow tracks. Aw, Charlie. I smiled to myself.

That's when I heard the shrill, screeching sound, and I looked up to see what was happening.

A Toyota was serving out of control, headed towards me. It was there so suddenly, I didn't even think to run. It was going to hit me, _it was going to hit me._

Even in my horror, I couldn't help but feel disappointed. It was deluded and strange, but I'd always expected I would die in some uncommon, interesting way. Jumping in front of someone I loved or even a heart attack, if it was done tastefully. But no, I was going to die from a _car crash_, the most common way to die besides smoking.

But I could only watch, petrified, as the car skidded towards me.

Then I realized, it was skidding, skidding… to a stop. Mere feet away from me. It stopped. I was going to live.

"Oh my God!" Vaguely, I heard Jessica call to me, and I saw the crowd that had formed around me. "Bella! I'm so glad you'r—BELLA!"

Pain. In my chest. So familiar, yet it was something I hadn't felt in so long… I fell, clutching my chest, willing my heart to stop throbbing—

I stayed awake to hear someone shout, "Get out of the way!" before everything went black.

**omnomnomnomnomnomnom**

**EPOV**

Up the stairs, down the hall… room 723. Isabella's room. It was up with all the other long-term patients, so many of who won't make it out. It was sad, but it was life.

I opened the door slowly, in case she was sleeping.

"I know, nurse, but it's so bitter! Can't you give me something with, maybe, a nice vanilla fla—oh, who are you?"

My eyes met with the one's I saw in Carlisle's mind. Still, seeing a person first0hand was always different from memories. Her eyes were different from most brown eyes; they had depth. I could see my own reflection, but there was something more…

"Oh, I'm Edw—"

"What do you want?" She interrupted.

She wasn't smiling, as I expected her to. Her sudden seriousness disconcerted me. I realized now what I had seen in her eyes, there was wisdom so much more than your average child.

"Er, I'm your new doctor."

She pouted. "Why? I like Dr. Cullen."

"Well, I'm his son. I'm sure we can get along too."

"You don't look alike."

"I'm adopted."

Her eyes lit up. "Really?"

"Yes," I smiled, happy to have her being interested.

I waited for her to say something more, but she just looked at me speculatively. Her too-old eyes unnerved me, but I couldn't tell if I wanted her to look away or not. There was something with this girl…

"So, what do you want to do?" I asked, thinking I could read her a book or something along those lines.

Her expression soured. "What I want to do? I want to do a lot of things."

She set her eyes on me again, watching my face intently, as if she was trying to figure out whether I was someone she could confide in.

"L-like what?" I asked, and I was surprised about how I felt unsure of myself around this child.

"I want to go outside. I want to see jump around and play like the other kids," she said. I was taken aback at the fierceness n her voice. Just the, I realized the door was still open, and shut it. "I want t—what's wrong with you?"

I heard a sound as soon as the door shut. It was so loud it drowned out everything else.

Something happened. I realized what the sound was. It wasn't a sound at all, because everything became quiet, still. _Quiet._

Alarmed, I turned my head to the girl, who was raising an eyebrow at me. My mind probed around the room.

Nothing. Where the girl sat in her bed, a void resided, empty of the thoughts I should be hearing.

Was something wrong with me?

I opened the door. The bustling of the hospital filled my head once more; I could hear the fretting of the nurses, the worries of the patients, the thoughts that had distracted me from noticing the absence of Isabella's thoughts in the first place. I shut the door again. The silence was so loud. Open, sound. Shut, silence. Open, shut, open, shut.

I looked back at the girl, hoping to be able to unlock her thoughts. I realized she was looking at me strangely now, not the same looking-through-me gaze was before, but now she seemed more intent on figuring was were the more obvious things wrong with me that made me play around with the door with such an alarmed expression. I coughed, almost embarrassed. Almost.

"So, what do you want to do?" I asked futilely.

"Doesn't matter now." She looked away.

Really, what was she thinking? A reflex reaction, I listened, and the silence almost knocked me over.

"I-I have to go."

Isabella said nothing.

I ran down the corridor at not-quite human speed, down to Carlisle's office.

**A.N. **Short chapter, sorry. I promise to write more later. (:


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